Monday, November 7, 2011

Why isn't Israel labelled a 'pirate state'?

The Israeli navy prevented an Irish and a Canadian boat from reaching Gaza on 5/6 November 2011. Israel rough handedly seized the two ships with a total of 27 passengers--peaceniks, former parliamentarians, journalists--from breaking its illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip. No one calls the Zionist state's seizure, which almost sank the boats, on international waters, on the high seas 'an act of piracy'. Why? For that is what Israel is 'a pirate state' with little or no regard for international laws and conventions, except when it favours Israel aims and designs.The 'mini Peace Flotilla' failed, but that won't stop others from trying until the blockade is broken. Israel's stupid spat with Turkey gave an edge to the 'blockade runners': one, it could bring little pressure on Ankara to stop the vessels from steaming out of Turkish ports; two, the 63 years of friendship and cooperation are broken, thereby allowing Turkey a free hand to extend its influence in the Arab world, central Asia, and move closer to Iran. Not only that, alienating Turkey has put Israeli plans on warning since Turkey is claiming rights to an area off Israel and Cyprus that may contain billions of cubic litres of natural gas, which Israel now has to import from Egypt to meet at least 40 percent of its energy needs. And to make matters worse, the gas pipeline from Egypt since the fall of Mubarak has been blown up five times.The pirate's reach is long and extends into the houses of the American Congress: consider the bill before a lower house committee to label any participation in Peace Flotillas as an act of terrorism. Translation: peaceniks are now to be considered 'terrorists'.The logic is perverse if not insane. Yes, it's a case of blaming the victim. Rather than labelling peaceniks 'terrorists', it would be better to tar and feather Israel for piracy on the high seas and bring plaint against the Zionist state before the International Court of Justice.Hillary Clinton is so willing to do Israel's dirty business which simply makes the case that the US never can be a disinterested party in the creation of a two state solution in Israel/Palestine. Wait there's more, the Obama administration is sweating purfusely, a very cold sweat of fear that Israel will bomb Iran without telling it beforehand. The implications, as GuamDiary has commented, will throw the region into turmoil and drag the US into another war of disastrous consequences. As we noted, 2011 is not 1956 when Israeli forces invaded Egypt along with the UK and France.Israel has gone insane under its right wing ideologues.